National Society of Film Critics Awards Kick Off Busy Precursor Week

The National Society of Film Critics today kicks off a busy precursor week with the announcement of their annual awards.

Known for their staunch anti-mainstream views (they caused a bit of a stir when they awarded Jean Luc Godard’s Goodbye to Language their best film of 2014), the National Society of Film Critics have long valued the preservation of craft and prestige over fueling the flames of the awards season consensus, which this year has yet to truly align behind a single film, though Tom McCarthy’s Spotlight, Adam McKay’s The Big Short, Todd Haynes’ Carol, and George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road seem to be the safest bets for Oscar gold at this time. Their voting base consists of roughly 70 critics that write for industry publications.

The NSFC’s crowning of Spotlight as their best film of 2015 comes as a surprise, given the film’s relatively mainstream standing as the presumed Best Picture frontrunner within the aforementioned pack. The film is technically an independent production, and its distributor, Open Road Films, exists outside the circle of The Five Families, which probably helped its standing with the NSFC. The last film with a second-tier distributor to win Best Picture was 2004’s Crash, which was distributed by Lionsgate.

In recent years, the National Society of Film Critics have given their Best Film award almost strictly to widely-respected auteurs. Lars von Trier, Joel and Ethan Coen, David Fincher, Michael Haneke, Kathryn Bigelow, Paul Thomas Anderson, David Lynch, and Guiellermo Del Toro have each had at least one of their films recognized by the NSFC since 2001. Tom McCarthy is a distinguished artist in his own right, but he’s still many years and many films away from joining the ranks of the esteemed filmmakers that have won big with the NSFC in the past. This win certainly helps the prestige factor building around him and Spotlight, though, and it couldn’t come at a better time, as Oscar voting opened on December 30.

If we’re looking at the NSFC as an Oscar bellwether (my advice: don’t), though, we can see that their tastes seem to align with The Academy’s when it comes to performances versus films at large. Cate Blanchett won their Best Actress prize for Blue Jasmine in 2013 and of course went on to win her third Oscar for the same role, while fringe contenders like last year’s Marion Cotillard (Two Days, One Night) are able to stop at the NSFC station on the line to an Oscar nomination as well.

Similar to Cotillard, Charlotte Rampling is picking up late-game steam for her leading performance in Andrew Haigh’s 45 Years as her awards season pathgrows to resemble Cotillard’s 2014 Best Actress run more and more as the weeks pass. Rampling has so far won Best Actress accolades at the Berlin International Film Festival, the European Film Awards, the Boston Society of Film Critics Awards, and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards. On January 8, it’s all but assured that she’ll receive a BAFTA nomination for the role as well, cementing her status as the likely fifth-slot nominee for the Best Actress Oscar.

The NSFC’s taste aligns with The Academy’s in Best Actor more than it does in Best Actress, with 7 of their last 10 winners (not counting this year’s Michael B. Jordan) going on to either win or be nominated for the Best Actor Oscar. Jordan is considered a fringe contender at this point, but the busy week on the horizon could change the course of the race we’ve known thus far. Leading up to the January 8 deadline for Oscar voting, we have the following guild/precursor announcements:

ACE – 1/4

ADG – 1/5

PGA – 1/5

ASC – 1/6

WGA – 1/6

BAFTA – 1/8

Though their awards announcement takes place amid a slew of others, it’s important to savor their perspective, as it often focuses our attention on films that matter more so than the films that have easily captured the spotlight of the moment. For now, here’s the full list of the 2016 National Society of Film Critics Awards winners to wet your appetite for the crazy week ahead:

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Once, when he was three, Joey Nolfi fancied himself as an exotic type and boldly told someone that he was “from North America.” He’s taken that status as self-appointed ambassador of the North American people and built with it a budding career in entertainment journalism. In other words: he’s written about awards season, film, pop culture, and the arts for a variety of publications including Entertainment Weekly, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, AFROPUNK, East End Fashion Magazine, and Naima Mora Online. He also acts, makes films, moonlights as a DJ/general nightlife legend, and can’t wait for the day that his friends have children that he can to take to the zoo one time and then spend the rest of his life patting himself on the back for it.

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Editor-in-Chief Joey Nolfi sifted through 87 years of Best Picture winners to come up with a formula that gauges Oscar traction. He ranked the films heading into this year's race, so you should check it out.

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RT @joeynolfi: AND ALSO Happy Presidents’ Day to President Natalie Portman at the end of Mars Attacks https://t.co/NrJGzYnAYh